John Neal circumnavigated in a 27 Ft. Albin Vega in the early 1970s;
for the past few years he has led some expeditions in a 42 ft.
Halberg-Rassy. Nowhere in his bio does he list any naval or any other
engineering, no boat design, no shipwright skills, no surveryors
license nor any other credentials that would offer other than an
'opinion' on boats. Sailing, seamanship, of course he can claim... but
certainly NOT a creditable source for construction issues other than
unsupported opinion. He writes books and leads sailing expeditions -
doesnt 'build' - boats. I suggest that you emal back to Mr. Neal and
have him support and prove his opinion by engineering calcs, or other
technical means ... otherwise what you got is just subjective
'opinion'.

Although his circumnavigation in a peapod is admirable and remarkable
this by no means gains any credibility or expertise in Tayana (or any
other) structure... other than 'bad-mouthing' someone else's design /
manufacture. He certainly has no 'credentials' other than his $45.00
book on 'how to buy a boat'. This would be equivalent to Amelia
Erhardt selling books on what airplane to buy and fly around the
world. Thats nice and may include good advice; but, should only be
considered as 'one persons' opinion. Did you ask Mr. Neal if he ever
sailed, owned, fixed, rebuilt, bought, brokered, etc. 'any' Tayana? any
other boats recently? Suggest that you email him these comments, and
see how he replies. ;-)

Following such 'advice' would be like buying stock on the
recommendation of a stock broker .... sometimes good, most times awful.
BTW - if you 'have' to ask a stock broker, you probably shouldn't be in
the 'game'. Ditto --- on choosing a wife and getting married. g



In article , Rich Hampel
wrote:

Well that just proves that John Neal doesnt have any idea of what he's
talking about or has some very strange biases. I think from such a
statement he is confusing Tayana (TaYan) with some of the 'rip-off'
Taiwanese yards that 'stole' designs from others and used crappy
methods and materials to 'throw them together' ( - like a HuntaBeneLina
for example). He ought to be honest at least and stop 'talking
through his ass'.

As I stated before the layup and the joinery are meticulous, the usage
of 'local' hardware can be inferior .... meaning that you CAN specify
top of the line stuff: Harken, etc. As far as price/value, Tayanas are
probably among the 'highest'. Historically Tayana (Ta Yang) has had
only one (out of over 4000 boats) that was a 'problem/lemon' and that
complaint was from an over-reacting anal-retentive type who didnt know
boats --- AND I kind of remember that your Mr. Neal may have been
involved in this 'problem' and totally got his facts wrong, didnt even
consider or understand the design concepts that he misrepresented, etc.
.... ie. a paid 'expert' liar.

Is this your 'first' boat? Do you have any boating experience?


In article et,
wrote:

I don't want to quote his email here but basically
he told me that he had discussed Tayanas with a very
knowledgeable colleaque and they both agree that the
overall quality of newer Tayanas is "marginal at best"
(despite lots of good looking teak).

We don't see a lot of complaints from Tayana owners
but this may be because they've got more than what
they paid for.